Banana Bars with Maple Cream Cheese Icing

I love bananas. On their own, in morning cereal and definitely in baked goods. So when I showed up at my parents' place for the weekend and saw a bowl of ripe bananas, they were just begging to be made into a big batch of banana bars with finger lickin' good maple syrup cream cheese icing. We have company for the weekend and these are the perfect thing for a big group.

If the banana bread-like consistency doesn't call to you then just look at this maple cream cheese icing. You need this in your life. ASAP.

What you'll need:
Bars:
2 cups Flour
1 1/3 cup Sugar
1/4 tsp Salt
2 tsp Baking Soda
2 ripe Bananas, mashed
3/4 cup Shortening
2 tsp Vanilla Extract or Dark Rum
4 Eggs

Icing:
8oz of Cream Cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup Unsalted Butter, room temperature
2 tbsp Real Maple Syrup
2 cups Icing Sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking soda in a large mixing bowl.

I apologize for the poor lighting and white balance in these photos. It was really late when I was making them, there was no daylight and I was really too tired to pay attention to the lighting. So you'll just have to deal with it. But eating some of the icing should make you feel

I was going to use vanilla extract for this recipe, but I couldn't find any, so I made a last minute executive decision to add a bit of Bacardi Añejo instead. Muy bueno!

Mix together mashed bananas, shortening, vanilla/rum and eggs in another mixing bowl.

Don't be shocked if you see little white pieces in the liquid. Thats is just the shortening. It will all mix up in the end, don't worry!

Add banana mixture to the dry mixture and stir until just moistened.

Pour into a greased 15 x 10 inch jelly roll pan and evenly spread.

Bake for 20 minutes or until the centre springs back when touched. Allow to cool in the pan while you prepare the icing.

Now its time to make the icing!

For the icing, I used real maple syrup from Maple Springs Farm in Caledon East, Ontario. I love this stuff! This makes my favorite whole wheat french toast taste amazing, and I really dig that its from the Oak Ridges Moraine, comes in a mason jar and has an old school label. Adds a little country charm to your morning, thats for sure.

Start off by combining room temperature cream cheese and butter until smooth.

You want it to be a really nice and smooth consistency to blend into a nice icing.

Add maple syrup and sugar, and mix to combine. Do not over mix. Adjust consistency if needed with maple syrup or icing sugar.

Spread icing over cooled bars. Lick the spatula. You know you want to.

Allow to set and then cut into bars. This recipe makes 24 large bars, but you can make them stretch even further by cutting them into 36 and they are still a nice big portion like these ones.

I love it when the icing starts to ooze down the sides. Yum :)

I took these photos first thing in the morning and I just couldn't help myself. I may or may not have eaten these for breakfast. Bananas, cream cheese and maple syrup are valid breakfast foods, right?

Makes 24 large bars or 36 medium bars.

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Nutritional Information